Artist
Art Brokerage: Finnish sculptor and
artist, Wäinö Valdemar Aaltonen (1894 – 1966) was born to a tailor in
the village of Karinainen, Finland. He became interested in art after
being deaf as a child, and attended the School of Drawing of the Turku
Art Association from age 16. He had spent many of the early years at
this school studying painting, but he was self-taught as a sculptor. A
journey he made to Italy in 1923 opened his eyes to cubist and futurist
art. These elements can primarily be seen in his paintings.
As the
Republic of Finland arose, and the First World War raged, he sculpted
War Memorials. He soon became a nationalist icon, the exemplar Finn,
establishing an exhibition in Stockholm in 1927. His sculpture is
nationalist in nature, and he is noted for monumental figures and busts
portraying citizens of Finland. An example is the 1925 sculpture of
Paavo Nurmi, a cast of which is exhibited outside the Helsinki stadium.
Another notable work is that of Jean Sibelius, a bust of 1928.
These two
works, like the main body of his work, are bronze casts—though he did
work in stone and even glass. He was one of the early 20th-century
pioneers of direct carving. A large collection of his works are on
permanent exhibition at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art in Turku.